The Planning Authority is soon to discuss a proposal to add three new floors onto a row of nine scheduled townhouses in Paceville.

The proposal concerns a row of nine two-storey Grade 2 listed townhouses situated on Triq il-Wilga and Triq Paceville which date back to the 1930s.

The PA’s Board on Thursday will discuss an outline proposal to raise the building height of the existing scheduled townhouses “in a uniform architectural vocabulary reaching the adjacent blank third party walls.”

Its case officer has recommended the approval of the application, and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage did not have any objections either.

An outline application is not deemed to be a full development, but would open the door for such by creating the parameters for it to happen.

In this instance, the outline application is being proposed by Priscilla Calleja who in 2017 had sought to transform her own property – which is one of these nine townhouses – into a guesthouse by demolishing it, retaining only the façade, and constructing a four-storey building instead.

The Planning Board back then had requested an outline application for the whole stretch of the scheduled properties in order to determine the building height and external appearance, with the consequence that the guesthouse application was suspended – but not rejected outright.

PA chairperson at the time Johann Buttigieg – who was later moved to be the CEO of the Malta Tourism Authority before stepping down last year – said that an outline development application would serve as a masterplan for the whole area and avoid piecemeal developments.

It is in this context that Calleja filed the outline development application.  She stipulated within the application that she was not the owner of the whole site, but that she had permission from the site owners to file the application.

Several objections to the proposal were filed, with the NGO Din L-Art Helwa saying that the proposed additional floors will “completely transform the site” and its traditional character and that Grade 2 scheduled buildings must be protected in their entirety and that additional development in this sense should only be permitted if minimal and if it would not detract from the architectural form and massing of the scheduled property.

Other objectors noted that the application would set a dangerous precedent which would threaten the integrity and protection of all scheduled properties in the country, and that the proposed development also goes against the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) which seeks to safeguard and enhance cultural heritage.

However, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage did not share these views, noting that because the additional floors will be setback by a metre from each façade, then it was not objecting to the proposal.

The Superintendence however held that the design of any full development on one of the townhouses should be retained as a reserved matter to be further assessed at that stage of the permitting process.

The case officer noted that provisions of a Structure Plan published in 1992 remain in force as a guide to development proposals on scheduled buildings, but noted that no specific height limitation in metres is given considering that the buildings in question as scheduled.

“However, there is no objection to the proposed additional floors as these will not exceed the existing height of the buildings on both sides, and the additional floors on each townhouse are stepped to follow the street gradient,” the case officer observed.

Therefore the case officer noted that the proposed development respects both SPED and the Structure Plan “which seeks to protect buildings of architectural or historical interest and their setting.”

With this in mind, the PA’s case officer recommended that the application be approved.

The Planning Authority Board will discuss the application on Thursday.